LONDON: Hume Brophy has hired former M:Communications head of life sciences Mary Clark to launch a healthcare PR and investor relations practice.

Clark will join the firm as MD, after working at the now-wound-down M: for two years.

She will be joined at Hume Brophy by former M: colleague Hollie Vile as an account director.

“For some time, we have recognized the need for companies to communicate to a much wider set of stakeholders in the new age of healthcare, and that is no longer sufficient for practitioners only to have certain skill sets and markets,” said Eoin Brophy, founding partner. “With the scrutiny on healthcare systems as constant and intense as it is now, it's critical that the industry is communicating its message properly and as widely as possible.”

Before M:, Clark built and led the healthcare and life sciences practice at Capital MSL. She has also served as head of the European consulting team at Thomson Reuters and started her career at BTG, where she was head of investor relations.

“Our ten-strong international healthcare specialist team is now able to combine global industry knowledge and expertise in public relations and investor relations with our skills in the government and European Union regulatory affairs spaces,” said Clark. “This means that we can deliver unrivalled healthcare solutions to help clients communicate with all the major decision makers and important influencers across the investment community, media, regulatory, and legislative bodies, and major political parties and institutions in Europe.”

The international healthcare business of M:Communications is the latest of the agency's divisions to spin off into a separate firm. Other members of M:'s former healthcare practice launched Consilium Strategic Communications in July, having bought the business out of M:'s former parent company King Worldwide. Consilium is led by Mary-Jane Elliott in London together with fellow co-founder Amber Bielecka.